The original two-story red brick building was constructed in 1913.

It had only three classrooms – little, middle and big. Kindergarten through second-grade were in the little room, fourth and fifth graders in the middle room, and sixth, seventh and eighth graders were in the big room.

The school was heated with coal. It also had a 4-H room where boys learned woodworking and other skills and girls learned to sew.

The total enrollment ranged from 50 to 85 students. Students wanting a higher education after the eighth grade went to Holland, Holland Christian or Zeeland high schools. There were no buses to transport the students until the late 1940’s.

There were still outhouses behind the school in 1941 but by that time there were indoor bathrooms for the boys and the girls. The bathrooms consisted of long benches with holes and a tube hanging from the opening emptied into a tank in the basement and was emptied as needed.

The federal school lunch program was begun in the mid 1940’s. Women from the area served a hot lunch prepared in the basement. This was during WWII so the children were very interested in what was happening as their families were all affected by the war.

There was an annual picnic and eighth grade graduations which were celebrated by the whole community.

On hour a week was spent at North Holland Reformed Church for a catechism lesson.

In 1958 North Holland and several other schools were consolidated into the West Ottawa Public Schools.
It served the rural community for 52 years and most of the time it was a K – 8 school.

The old school sat slightly east of the current building and was demolished in 1965 as the construction of the new building was almost completed.

In 2005 there was a 40^th anniversary celebration of the newer building and an artist was commissioned to paint a picture of the original school to be presented at the celebration.